Ukrainian food startup Green Go is set to host a tasting event and Q&A session with a select group of investors, media, chefs, charities, and other industry partners at the ProVeg HQ in Berlin on Thursday, February 2nd.
Green Go will showcase samples of its realistic plant-based shrimp, salmon burgers, calamari, and whole cuts including “ribeye steak” and “filet mignon”, prepared by vegan chef and blogger Alexander Flohr, author of the cookbook Vegan Ocean.
Besides tasting the startup’s products — not yet available in restaurants, retail, or food service outside Ukraine — attendees will have the opportunity to talk to Founder Alexandr Panasiuk, CEO and Creative Director Bogdana Leonova, and Head of Food Technology Maria Manturova.
ProVeg Incubator
Green Go was founded in 2021 by Yuriy Kyshnir and Aleksandr Panasiuk to create and produce plant-based foods that are “tasty and accessible to everyone.” The company, which was part was part of ProVeg Incubator’s ninth cohort, marking the first-ever Ukrainian startup to participate in the incubator, explained at Demo Day it was focused on developing realistic plant-based meats and that it had developed a plant-based steak with a meat-like structure, fat marbling, taste, and juiciness similar to animal meat.
Amid the war, Green Go plans to continue producing in Ukraine. The company uses plant proteins such as peas, soy, wheat, and tofu which are cost-effective staples produced in the country. Its Kyiv-based team of food technologists continues with its R&D timetable to add new products to the startup’s portfolio. Despite the events, Green Go will continue with plans to expand into the Ukrainian and other European markets.
Plant-based eastern Europe
In eastern Europe, local innovators have seen an opportunity on the market’s reduced offer of plant protein-based alternatives. According to Euromonitor, retail plant-based meat sales rose sharply (+43%) in eastern Europe, reaching €176.6M last year.
In Czech Republic, where ProVeg Czechia has established an export alliance called the ProVeg Czech Export Alliance, the startup ManaBurger, makes nutritionally complete vegan burgers. In Lithuania, startup BioGNR develops a mycoprotein called Mico-22, and in Rumania, Bluana, develops products that mimic tuna and salmon. Both startups were part of ProVeg’s ninth cohort that was open for the public for the first time last December.
Albrecht Wolfmeyer, head of the ProVeg Incubator, at the announcent the ninth cohort said: “Is particularly pleasing to see a startup from Ukraine joining us at a time when the country is struggling under the horrors of war”.
